Encyclopedia of SociologyVol._1

The idea for this Encyclopedia of Sociology was in gestation for a long time. Probably the notion arose when, as Sociology Advisory Editor for Rand

McNally and Company, I arranged for a series of handbooks that were published in the 1960s and

1970s. This influential group of volumes covered most of sociology, especially with the Handbook of Modern Sociology (Robert E. L. Faris, 1964) as a key volume. Other titles in the list included: Handbook of Marriage and the Family (Harold T. Christensen, 1964); Handbook of Organizations (James G. March, 1965); Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research

(David A. Goslin, 1968); Handbook of Personality Theory and Research (Edgar F. Borgatta & William

W. Lambert, 1968); Handbook on the Study of Social Problems (Erwin O. Smigel, 1971); and Handbook of Criminology (Daniel Glaser, 1974). Effectively, the series functioned as an encyclopedia, especially since there was additional related coverage already provided by the Handbook of Social Psychology

(Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson, 1968). At that time Macmillan’s International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (David L. Sills, ed., 1968) was also available, and a separate encyclopedia for sociology seemed superfluous.

With time, however, as social-science research and professional involvement grew, along with the proliferation of subfields, each of the social and behavioral sciences and, indeed, other specialties, such as statistics, area studies, and applied areas, developed useful encyclopedias. In the late 1970s I talked about an encyclopedia of sociology with F.

E. (Ted) Peacock (F. E. Peacock Publishers, Inc.), who encouraged the development of the project.

However, since it takes time for these things, it was not until the early 1980s that I actually started reflecting actively on what would need to be done, and I sought advice on what actually would be involved in such a project. Fortunately, Raymond J. Corsini, a good friend with whom I had worked on other matters, invited me to be an Associate Editor for the Encyclopedia of Psychology (Corsini, 1984). I got a close look at what was involved in undertaking a project of this magnitude and I was persuaded that the task would be a feasible one for sociology.

The field of sociology had been growing and evolving rapidly in the post-World War II period. Possibly the decades of the 1960s and 1970s will be seen in retrospect as one of the periods of great change for the discipline. Of course, different people will judge past developments differently, but some of the changes that have to be recognized as important include the following:

First. Sociology, which August Comte had blessed with the title of the ‘‘Queen of the Social Sciences,’’ seemed to be losing much of the empire. In particular, applied fields dealing with social behavior blossomed, but as they did so, sociology seemed indifferent, uninvolved. The field of social work developed its advanced degree programs and established research interests that sociology relinquished as uninteresting because they were ‘‘applied.’’ The field of industrial sociology virtually disappeared as the interest in research flourished in several specialties in psychology and in schools of business and management. Interest in the key institution, the family, was largely lost to

the special applied organizations in that area. And so it went in a number of other fields. The ‘‘Queen’’ appeared indifferent, possibly with the exception of the field of medical sociology, in which there was considerable development.

Second. Technical training in sociology became increasingly more demanding. When I taught the first graduate course in statistics for sociology at the New York University Graduate School in 1954, it included regression analysis and factor analysis. The reception and reputation was a bit like that greeting the arrival of extraterrestrials. The title (or epithet) ‘‘Factor Analyst’’ was definitely not meant to be complimentary. Nevertheless, in the 1950s, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and others supported the idea that the formal theory and technical bases of the social sciences required attention, and programs were initiated to foster a greater appreciation of mathematics and statistics. Particularly with the support of the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) graduate training grants, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, and other centers concentrated on ‘‘research methods’’ during and following the 1960s. The discipline reflected this focus in its journals. Sociology also became known as the leader in research training in the social sciences, with the new generation of scholars becoming conversant with statisticians, econometricians, and psychometricians, and providing service to history, political science, and anthropology. The ‘‘Queen’’ again had some empire.

Third. The 1960s experienced the civil-rights movement, the student movement, the feminist movement, and, implicitly or explicitly, sociologists reacted to and sometimes participated actively in these social movements. Challenges arose to the ‘‘traditional’’ values of objective and ‘‘value free’’ science in sociology. These challenges ranged from positions asserting knowledge by intuition to the posing of more serious epistemological questions. Attention was drawn to the fact that sociology apparently had little utility in solving social problems, aside from assisting in exposing them, but, further, sociologists were often accused of not studying complex problems because they were limited and hampered by their methodologies. A resurgence of interest in ‘‘qualitative’’ approaches developed, which also provided a stimulus for a reexamination of existing research approaches.

Fourth. At the same time, the scope of what sociologists could accomplish more generally expanded with technical development. Two of the more prohibitive cost factors in research and scholarship have progressively been reduced, since the development of computing packages made possible the elimination of computing clerks at the same time that it made possible complex numerical and statistical analyses. Additionally, this development eliminated time losses as the labor intensive aspects were eliminated. Also, the availability of word processing packages made it possible for even the most helpless scholar to by-pass the secretary or typing pool and get materials into a readable and revisable format. As these earlier ‘‘barriers’’ to productivity were removed, presumably the social sciences responded accordingly. In any event, there has been a proliferation of journals, and increasing collateral publication continues in various media.

Fifth. The continued development of the field of sociology can be marked by the increase of special subfields. Aside from the increases in publication, the number of specialization sections in the American Sociological Association (ASA) continues to grow, as do the Research Committees in the International Sociological Association (ISA). A reflection of this may be seen by glancing at the topical coverage of Contemporary Sociology, the ASA journal of book reviews.

This broadening of the field of sociology affected the way topics were chosen for the Encyclopedia of Sociology. In the early stages, a broad set of topics was used to accumulate the important concepts and subfields included in sociology. Initially, the objective was to be as inclusive as possible and to avoid errors of omission. A constant problem in the process was that topics did not fit neatly into only one broad category. Often they could fit as easily into two, three, or four. In fact, the number of broad categories became increasingly elastic, but eventually these were reduced to seventeen, corresponding to no known system of organization other than expedience. The broad categories did not have any obvious theoretical basis of division, which was disconcerting, but represented the pragmatic result of many revisions. Our Advisory and Associate Editors participated in reviews of the total set of categories or of selected subsets for a few of the broad categories. It is fair to report that while we often saw consensus in the process,

sometimes we felt that there was no effective way to manage the procedure for selection of topics or to satisfy every piece of advice, sound as it might seem. At one point we had more than 1,700 potential entry titles. These eventually were consolidated into about 400 titles with notations of how overlapping concepts were handled, how related concepts were to be combined, and so forth. In making the arrangements with authors, further consolidation brought the final number of entries to the 370 in this 4-volume set.

The process of defining topics, thus, while driven by theoretical interests and strategic representations of the field, ultimately resulted in a pragmatic and eclectic product. Thus some topics became very comprehensive while others have more specific content. In areas where there is intensive attention by sociologists, such as social stratification, race and ethnic studies, gender, medical sociology, and aging, coverage by authors may overlap in a way that provides emphasis.

Other factors that guided the formulation of entry topics included defining the audience for whom the encyclopedia was intended. It was expected that sociologists would read about areas with which they were not familiar, but we wanted the materials to be useful to other scholars and professionals who need information about topics in sociology. Further, encyclopedias are gold mines for students, and so a central concern was that articles could be read and understood by younger and uninitiated persons looking for a first introduction to a sociological topic. This latter message was communicated to authors, and in large part it has been possible to provide presentations that

will reach a broad range of literate audiences. There are some obvious exceptions. In some technical areas the presentations, while self-contained and elegantly presented, do require a preexisting knowledge base in order to be fully understood by the readers.

OCTOBER 1991

EDGAR F. BORGATTA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

REFERENCES

Borgatta, Edgar F., and William W. Lambert 1968 (eds.)

Handbook of Personality Theory and Research. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

Christensen, Harold T. 1964 (ed.) Handbook of Marriage and the Family. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

Corsini, Raymond J. 1984 (ed.) Encyclopedia of Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Company.

Faris, Robert E. L. 1964 (ed.) Handbook of Modern Sociology. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

Glaser, Daniel 1974 (ed.) Handbook of Criminology. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

Goslin, David A. 1968 (ed.) Handbook of Socialization

Theory and Research. Chicago: Rand McNally and

Company.

Lindzey, Gardner, and Elliot Aronson 1968 (eds.) Handbook of Social Psychology, 2nd ed. Boston: AddisonWesley Publishing Company.

March, James G. 1965 (ed.) Handbook of Organizations. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

Sills, David L. 1968 (ed.) International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan Company and Free Press.

Smigel, Erwin O. 1971 (ed.) Handbook on the Study of Social Problems. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

After the Encyclopedia of Sociology had been in print only three years, we began to receive inquiries about when there would be a revised edition.

This was surprising given that the Encyclopedia was so well received, that its distribution had been much broader than even optimistic supporters of the project had anticipated, and that the articles were largely broad reviews and summaries of areas of knowledge in sociology. However, some areas in sociology changed quickly during the last decade as we approached the Millennium so that interest in a recapitulation and updating did not seem inappropriate. In addition, the social sciences appear to have softened their borders, and thus we realized that a substantial and thoughtful addition of titles would add breadth and depth to the Encyclopedia.

August Comte’s description of sociology as the ‘‘queen’’ of the social sciences seems to have been awakened in a new generation, and the relevance of sociology to the social and behavioral sciences has been renewed. We took seriously our obligation to improve the representation of the areas of sociology in this edition of the Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia was greatly improved through the input of Advisory Editors and authors who identified new content areas and titles that should be included and indicated which titles could be eliminated or consolidated. Some provided comprehensive reviews of the Encyclopedia’s scope and coverage, as well as reviews of the content of many individual articles. Suggestions for additional titles for the revised Encyclopedia accumulated to a list of over 80 concepts and themes, resulting in the

addition of 66 new titles, but in addition some of the revised articles also included substantially new and expanded topics.

With the help of the Advisory Editors and quite a few authors, we reviewed articles and sectors of coverage to determine what changes would be important in a new edition. We distilled the major points of emphasis provided by reviews and user comments, and incorporated them into the guidelines for revision provide to authors.

Reflecting the kind of question that comes up so often in sociology doctoral exams, reviewers repeatedly asked us why a particular article was included in an encyclopedia of sociology. Authors who are expert in a particular subject area assume too frequently that readers will know their topic’s relevance for sociology. To guard against this we asked authors to note the sociological relevance of the topic and to show how it fit into not only the scheme of sociological knowledge but also social and behavioral knowledge in general. As a consequence, most articles have been expanded.

Authors, experts in their fields, often concentrate on the knowledge and the issues within their field but do not give sufficient attention to the practical value of that knowledge, particularly how it is important for policy formation and in applications to everyday life. Of course, this is a comment often made about academic scholars in general, namely, that they sometimes forget that an important reason for research and the accumulation of knowledge is to provide bases for useful and informed applications.

Reviewers raised another theme. Articles often did a wonderful job of summarizing knowledge but did not indicate what to expect from future endeavors in the field. In other words, what areas need more attention in scholarship and research to expand the knowledge in a given field? While this kind of presentation is speculative, we reminded authors of the need to give direction for future work.

An additional theme for the revised edition is one that is temporally controlled. There is no way that references can provide more information than what already has been published. Updating content is important, but equally important is providing information about easily accessible general resources for those who want to go beyond the relatively brief discussions in the Encyclopedia. We reminded authors that the purpose of the reference section is to provide users with an opportunity to explore the area further. Academic scholars can too easily become exhaustive bibliographers. Thus, we asked authors to give special attention to providing direction rather than overwhelming the reader, and we are impressed that most authors have been extremely successful in this task. In addition to the work of the authors, the professional sociological staff of the Encyclopedia prepared for some article a short list of additional references to broaden the scope of coverage and

provide additional transitions to related concepts. We updated and provided new references for 20 articles from the earlier edition of the Encyclopedia.

Finally, reviewers commented that some of the presentations in the first edition were too brief, and some topics were too narrowly drawn. Thus, some topics have been combined, some topics have been eliminated and the content incorporated into related broader articles, and many articles have been expanded to cover neglected aspects of a topic and to provide greater detail for a more well-rounded presentation. Thirty-nine titles were eliminated and incorporated into more substantial articles, but some additional titles were changed when the original topic was expanded. In summary, there were 370 articles in the original edition, 39 were eliminated and 66 new articles were added, resulting in 397 in this revised edition.

In short, we have greatly improved the breadth and depth of coverage in the Encyclopedia, and we have paid particular attention to those articles that relate to other social and behavioral sciences. We have substantially increased the content of the Encyclopedia in this edition, and we have made every effort to ensure that the content is current, accurate, and representative of the field.

EDGAR F. BORGATTA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF